I'm A Monster
by Unknown by You
Summary: Christina Falls thought she was a normal girl. That all changed the day before her thirteenth birthday.
1. Changes

There was a beep as the announcements came on, and the teachers throughout the building tried to get their students to "settle down and be quiet". Some of them failed and just gave up, walking out into the hallway to listen and relay the information to their students later. There was a little sound as though the microphone had been passed around, and the assistant principle went through his little speech about the school-supporting events that would take place over the following weekend. The final bell rang, echoing down the halls, signaling that 7th period and the school day was over. The students streamed out the classroom doors, cheering. They were relieved that exams were finally over and done with for the year and excited about the three-day weekend and the snowfall that had been promised by the weatherman that morning.

I was the last kid to make it out of my 7th period class and to my locker. For someone who had probably aced all the exams she had this week, I felt like heck. See, I felt so horrible, that I couldn't even bring myself to say the other word that belongs in the end of that sentence — and it wasn't mental pain, it was physical. Everything hurt; all my muscles ached.

I shuffled down the path I had memorized since the first day of school. Down the hall, around the corner, down the hall again, down the two flights of stairs that lead to the basement, and down the hall once again to the locker in the middle of the hallway. As I got approached my locker, my pain suddenly went away and I saw my best friend fiddling with the lock, his back turned to me and not paying me any attention what so ever. I quickened pace and kept my footsteps as silent as possible.

"Come on, come on, think Sanders, think. 0…43…17…," he said, as he spun the dial. The lock clicked and the door swung open. "Oh yeah, uh huh! Score one for the team!" he said, jumping up and doing a fist pump.

"And just what team would that be?" I said.

He jumped, and whirled around. I noticed he moved something behind his back. "Christina, hey. Didn't see you there. I uh…um…wanted to see if… I could open it," he said, nervously.

"What for?" I said, shifting my bag.

"Well, I…wanted to surprise you by…putting your present…in your locker," he mumbled.

I had totally forgotten during the day. My birthday was this Saturday

"Aw, thank you Simon," I said, giving him a hug. He brightened immediately.

"I just thought of something. I'll give it to you tonight during dinner before the movie," he said. I nodded. Earlier, at lunch, Simon had told me that he had made a plan. He had arranged with his parents that he'd pick me up at 7:00, we'd walk to Cici's Pizza—only a couple of blocks from our street (we're neighbors)—and then go see a movie. I had called my dad during lunch and he said I could go. He trusted Simon.

"Get your backpack. I don't want to miss the bus," I said. He nodded and ran down the hall to his locker. I put my book into my purple messenger bag with my binder and velcroed the flap shut. I set my bag down and took my black coat out of my locker and put it on. I closed and locked my locker, and turned towards Simon.

"I'm gonna go get us a seat on the bus," I called to him.

He nodded, continuing to stuff random objects into his backpack from his ridiculously full locker of God knows what. I walked up the stairs—only one flight this time—and out the nearest set of doors that lead outside. I walked up to the line of busses waiting in front of the middle school and got on the one all the way to the left. When I reached the top of the three little steps, I found that the right front seat was open for takers. I wasted no time in plopping down on it.

"Hey, Steve," I said, waiting for his usual response.

"Good to see ya, Christina," he said. There it was.

Steve was a polite, African American bus driver whose job seemed to be to always drive my bus to school, even when I change from elementary school to middle school. He was probably the only staff member—can you call bus drivers school staff members?—in the school that I really trusted. He actually cared about his job. His bus was always clean, he made sure that he knew all the kids by face and name, he was always on time (to and from school, even on half days), he was never late no matter what the weather was like (he came early when it was raining or snowing or on particularly hot or cold days), and handed out Blow pops on a weekly basis (often breaking his routine when it was the day before holidays; sometimes when it was just plain, old, longer than normal weekends). Honestly, I thought the man was an awesome role model.

Simon got on the bus soon after that, and after making sure everyone was on the bus, Steve pulled away from the curb and headed towards our neighborhood. When we finally got to our bus stop, we walked toward our houses. When we were at my house, he reminded me that he would come over at 7:00, we hugged, and went our separate ways—I went up the front porch steps and into my house as he walked next door and did the same thing.

I dropped my bag on my chair at the kitchen table and spotted a note on the fridge. I walked over, picked it up and read it. It was dad saying that we were out of several things and that he went to go some of them at the store and that he'd "be back soon". I automatically translated that to mean that I was on my own for at least an hour. I decided that I should lock the front door. I turned around and headed for the door.

I was in the middle of the hall when it happened. Right then and there the pain returned, tenfold. This time it wasn't all over. It was my back and it felt like it was being split open. I fought my desperate urge to scream bloody murder. As if I needed anything else at that moment, my head decided that it was the perfect time to explode into similar pain. I sank to my knees and cradled my head, hoping against hope that it would stop. No such thing happened.

I couldn't hold it in any longer. I howled; long, hard, and loud—not howling in the sense of screaming. No, nothing at all like that. When I howled, I sounded so much like an actual wolf, that I scared myself, and that was hard to do.

I doubled over, hugging myself as new excruciating pain exploded in my head. I was gasping for air now. Why was it so darn hard to breathe? I didn't have any time to think about it as everything suddenly went silent. I couldn't hear anything. Then, as suddenly as it had left, it was back in a few painful moments, louder and sharper than ever. I could hear my dad's computer humming in his office at the back corner of the house. I shouldn't have been able to hear that.

Before I knew what was happening, the front door slammed open. Several armed men in black protection suits with bulletproof vests stormed into the house taking position in a circle around me. I heard the tearing of clothes, several gasps from the men, and then felt a pinch in my right arm. Looking down, I found a syringe sticking out of my arm, no doubt having just injected me with some kind of drug. Growling, I yanked the syringe out of my arm, stood up shakily, and tossed the thing away. I turned around and started stumbling towards the stairs that lead to the second floor of my house. I never made it. The drug had taken effect and I was really dizzy now. I fell, and as I went down, I hit my head on the stairs, adding to the pain. It didn't last for long as I began to fall unconscious. The pain slipped away, the sounds died down, and my eyes felt heavy. One of the men knocked the mirror off the nearby table, and as it fell, I got one short glimpse at what I looked like before the mirror shattered on the ground. I managed one more scream as I sank into the blackness that was all around me.

"NO!"

I was a monster.


	2. Discoveries

**Author Note: I watched Monsters vs. Aliens a couple days ago, and I felt that I had to do a story for it, so this is what I came up with. I am sorry about not putting a note on the first chapter or putting a disclaimer. I was in such a rush and so excited to put this up that I completely forgot all about it.**

**I am thinking about turning this into a 'Gallaxhar returns' kind of story, so I need ideas. I also need ideas for a monster name for Christina. I'll listen to anything—I'm that desperate. So, seriously people, review. And if you have no ideas, you can send a review as simple as 'Hey, you spelled such-and-such wrong' or something. Seriously. And I love criticism. So make my day and review. **

**Also, this was awkward to write, so I'm really sorry if this was awkward to read—I wasn't exactly sure how to do this, so this is how it turned out. Then again, I feel that the scene in the movie were Susan first met the rest of the gang was kind of awkward for her, so maybe I did it right. I don't know—you can decide for yourself. Lastly, I know Insectosoarus turned into a butterfly and Link called him "Butterflyasoarus" (or something like that), but I decided to keep calling him Insectosoarus because butterflies are insects too.**

**Some notes: **"Speaking." '_Christina thinking.'_ **"Insectosoarus speaking/roaring."**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Monsters vs. Aliens. I don't own Cici's Pizza. I only own Christina Falls, Simon Sanders, and Steve the bus driver. Enjoy!**

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"Dad, why'd you set the alarm…on a Saturday…my birthday…GAH!" I mumbled, half asleep as I heard the blaring noise, and then shouted as I rolled off the narrow cot I had been lying on.

THUD!

I landed on my stomach and my face smacked the cold, hard, metal floor—wait a minute. My bedroom didn't have a metal floor. None of the rooms in my house had a metal floor. I scrambled up into a sitting position. I looked around the room, my head whipping around wildly. I noticed I was wearing some kind of uniform. It was a black two-piece jumpsuit with an orange stripes running down the sides. Above my heart were the numbers 00006. I also had orange socks and gray sneakers on. I looked back to the cot, and stared as it retracted into the metal wall. I was freaked now.

I stood up, and fell back down almost instantly, hitting my head once again. Sitting up again and rubbing my head, I noticed that my back felt much heavier, like I had an invisible backpack on. I reached behind my neck and felt around my shoulders. When I felt something rough and leathery, I ran my hand along it, slightly pulling on it so that it moved to where I could see it.

It was a wing. A pitch black, scaly, leathery wing. It looked like something out of a very realistic fairy tale book, like the kind a dragon might have. It was it at least eight feet long, and sure enough, after feeling around some more, I found that I had another one just like it on the other side. I tried folding them behind my back the way that I had seen birds do after landing, and was surprised when it worked. With a gasp, I remembered the image I had seen in the mirror before it had shattered. I had seen the wings and the…

Trembling, I lifted my hands to the top of my head, past my brown hair, hoping against hope that I wouldn't find what I had seen in the mirror. As my fingers felt the big, soft, furry, triangular shapes on top of my head, I already knew what they were. They were wolf ears, the same color as my wings.

I yanked my hands down and away from them to the floor, and I yelped like a dog when I accidentally pulled one. I slapped my hands over my mouth as I realized that I was the one who had made the noise. When I felt something scratch my cheeks, I pulled my hands away and stared at them. My hands were normal—thank God—but that wasn't what had caught my attention. No, it was the ends of my fingers that I was focused on. I had claws, and they looked as if they had been sharpened into blunt points. They too matched today's weird color scheme (meaning they were black as well).

As if I needed anything else "new", I discovered that I had a tail. This shocked me, because like my claws, I hadn't seen it in the mirror. It must have "appeared" sometime while I was out like a light. It was long, narrow, and—you guessed it—black. Fingering it gingerly, I found that it was furry, like I had expected, but also that it was as soft as velvet. I found that, much like my wings, it was easy to get it to move—it was much like moving an arm or a leg.

'_This is getting too weird for words,_' I thought, as I heard a click and the entire room shuddered. I tilted my head to the side as I heard a strange, distant humming sound, but righted it when I noticed what I was doing. I fell to the ground for the third time today as the room started free-falling. Then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. The wall in front of me moved up-ward to reveal a white room. As I was thinking about how this strange, metal room was part elevator, and how the wall was actually some kind of door, the slanted wall behind me started moving towards me and pushed me into the white room. '_Nothing in this place is what it seems to be,_' I thought as I stood up and started walking, hugging myself to try and calm myself down. In the middle of the huge room were one small table with four small chairs around it—one of them no doubt for me—and a second huge table with one chair—both ranging from at least thirty to forty feet tall.

Looking underneath and past the huge table, I saw that one of the wall/door things was about 4 feet open. Curiosity got the better of me and I walked under the table and approached the door. I could hear whispers, but they stopped as I got close. Gripping the edge of what I was sure was an actual wall, I bent over and looked inside. It was too dark to make anything out.

"Hello? Is anybody in there?" I asked. Getting no reply, I sighed. Hearing a humming sound, I turned around to find that a clear tube was being lowered from the ceiling. It hovered over one end of the small table before "spitting out" five medium-sized pancakes. As it retreated back into the ceiling, I approached the pancakes. Cautiously, I lifted the nearest one off the table and sniffed it. '_I smell chocolate._' I took a bite. It was a regular, non-toxic, non-poisonous, chocolate-chip pancake. Not a single hint of any kind of drug in it. I felt my tail move back and forth in my delight. Suddenly, I felt my ears perk up and twitch. I dropped the pancake back onto the table and whirled around just in time to see something brown dart behind one of the enormous table legs.

"Hello?" I asked. I got an answer this time.

"Hello." It was a somewhat British voice, coming from the other side of the table leg.

"Who's there?" I asked. I probably shouldn't have. The body belonging to the voice stepped out from behind the table leg. It was a human with the head of a cockroach. Upon seeing the white lab coat, I realized he was a scientist, and probably had an experiment go wrong.

He stuck one hand behind his back and held his other one out to me. "Dr. Cockroach Ph.D."

My father had taught me at a young age that when anyone—anyone—wanted you shake their hand, you "had better shake it". So, swallowing, I stuck out my trembling hand and he shook it. "Christina Falls. What kind of name is that?"

"Monster name," he replied as he took out a pad of notepaper from an inside pocket of his lab coat and started writing notes on it.

"Monster name?" I asked.

"Whenever someone gets sent here, the government changes their name. Sometimes it's based on what they are, or in my case, what they…look like," he answered. "We refer to them as monster names," he added, looking back down at his notes.

"Oh." I probably sounded like an idiot, but he didn't seem to notice or care. We just stood there for several minutes, occasionally glancing at each other, but then hastily looking away when the other noticed. "Well, this is awkward," I said, breaking the silence.

"Indeed," he said glancing up and tucking his notepad back into its hidden pocket.

"CAW, CAW! CAW, CAW!

We both jumped at the unexpected sound that had come from the darkness behind the door. Dr. C face-palmed, shaking his head. "Please forgive my…associates," he said, sounding annoyed, before scuttling off on all fours, zigzagging towards the open door.

'_He's faster than I thought._' After he disappeared into the darkness, and I was sure that he couldn't see me, I slapped myself. Hard. After determining that I was indeed not dreaming, I walked back to the table and finished the pancake that I had started before I had been interrupted. '_Oddly, chocolate never makes me hyper; it always calms me down,_' I thought as I ate. When I finished, I turned around only to find that the Doc was back, and was accompanied by a green fish-ape creature, a big glop of blue goo, and a 50-foot tall white haired woman. '_Well, now I know who the big table is for,_' I thought.

_THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! _

I whipped around to find a 500-foot tall butterfly-like insect walking towards us. As it approached, it roared. I winced as I felt my ears flatten against my head from the overly-loud noise. "**New monster today?**"

"You betcha, Insectosoarus" said the fish-ape creature.

"Insectosoarus" roared again. "**Where?**"

My eyes widened. '_Holy crap, I can understand him._' "Down here," I said, waving my hand in the air. I watched as he looked me over with those humongous eyes of his.

He roared. "**Nice wings.**"

"Thanks. I like yours too," I said.

"Wings?" the fish-ape asked, confused.

Turning around, I spread out my scaly wings—all 16 feet of black glory.

"By Hawkins's chair!" Dr. C exclaimed, startled.

"You can understand Insecto," asked the fish-ape.

"Apparently," I said, folding my wings against my back again.

**He stared at me with an ****incredulous expression. Finally seeming to get over it, he asked me, "Monster name?"** "**She doesn't have one yet. I don't believe she's been to orientation either, so she doesn't know who we are," the Doc spoke up for me.**

The blue goo moved forward. "Hi. I'm Benzoate Ostylezene Bicarbonate. Or you can call me B.O.B. Whichever's easier," he said, laughing. I stared at him as I realized that he was the one who had made the bird call earlier.

Dr. C rolled his eyes. "Please forgive him. As you can see, he has no brain."

"Turns out, you don't need one," said B.O.B., forming hands and waving them around to emphasize his point. "Totally over-rated," he added, laughing again.

The fish-ape swung forward on his knuckles—probably his version of walking forward. "The Missing Link, or just Link" was all he said.

I craned my neck to look up at the giantess. "Hi. I'm Ginormica, but I prefer Susan," she said, waving down at me. I nodded, my mouth hanging open as I stared at the odd group in surprise and a little confusion.

I turned around and walked back to the table, rubbing my temples. '_No one in their right mind would believe this if I told them about it. They'd call me insane or a liar,_' I thought to myself. When I made it to the table, I sat down and continued eating my pancakes. A little bit after that, the Doc, Link, and B.O.B. wandered over to the table and took seats on the other end of it as another tube was lowered from the ceiling to the table. This time, however, it dumped a pile of raw fish onto the table, obviously for Link, and a pile of trash for Dr. C. It moved over-top of B.O.B. and dropped a whole ham. It fell right into the middle of him and it started to dissolve. The tube then moved to Susan's big table and dumped a pile of oatmeal with a spoon onto her table. I frowned. '_Why don't I get a fork or something? I mean, I'm fine with eating with my hands—they probably thought I liked to—but still. Oh well, I don't really care,_' I thought to myself.

As we were eating, one of the larger doors opened and a man in a green military outfit with numerous badges walked out into the white room. I didn't hear him until he was at least 50 feet away—my ears had perked up and twitched, indicting there was something behind me; I was actually getting used to them now that I was no longer freaking out about everything. "Monsters, get back in your cells," he said, in a gruff voice.

As the others stood up and headed towards separate doors, he turned towards me.

"My name is General W.R. Monger," he said, standing up as straight as he could when he said his name. "I am in charge of this here facility. Now follow me. It is time for your orientation."

So standing up and sneaking my last pancake behind my back, I followed him.


End file.
